Russian academic proposes replacing instruction of Tolstoy's War and Peace with Bible study

Ludmila Verbitskaya, President of the Russian Academy of Education, proposed that Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, along with some novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, be removed from the country's obligatory school curriculum.

"These are profound philosophical works with serious arguments in regards to various topics. A child cannot understand their full depth," said Verbitskaya in an interview with news agency Moscow.

Verbitskaya also said that "works of spiritual literature" should be added to the school curriculum.

"I think that everyone should read the Bible," she said. "I looked at the pupils of Sunday schools [and see that] they are different and have definitely not become worse than their peers from having heard a sermon."

In regards to a course on Orthodoxy at schools, Verbitskaya said that it should be available as an elective and not an obligatory part of the academic curriculum.

• Russian schools have being offering a course called "Fundamentals of religious culture and secular ethics" since 2012. Along with their parents, students may choose between studying the fundamentals of Orthodoxy, Islam, Juddaism, or Buddhism or studying secular ethics.